1 Timothy 5 v 9 – 15 – Merry Widows

v9-10 

Paul says to be on the “list of widows” a woman must be;

·          60 years old

·          faithful to her husband

·          be known for good works such as;

v  looking after her children

v  welcoming strangers, hospitality

v  washing the feet of God’s people, humble

v  helping those in trouble

v   Giving her life to doing good deeds.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking, what’s a list of widows? In this kind of time, widows who were worthy to receive the churches help, were put on a list. Simples. They then had to do special duties that were already within their capabilities, like helping with children, hospitality, or teaching other women.

v11-12Paul justifies the age thing by saying that younger widows will have sexual desires and will want to marry again. So they won’t be widows anymore, obviously. They will be judged for not doing what they first promised to do. Okay so a widow is expected to remain totally devoted to Christ’s service and they make some promise to not get married again. This is why they are judged because they break the promise.

v13-15Paul say that younger widows learn to waste time by going from house to house. Then they gossip and busy themselves with unimportant stuff. So Paul wants younger widows to remarry, have kids, and manage their home so they do not become lazy!  Then no enemy can criticize them. Some widows on the list had turned to follow Satan and this is why Paul urges Timmy to not put young widows on this list, he doesn’t want them falling into sin.

ApplicationOOOOOOOOOOH story time! Some relation / family friend / person who I don’t actually know how I know, is old. She’s in a nursing home and she’s not a Christian or anything, but she’s had Christian influences through my family. And suddenly out of the blue this other old biddy was like “what good do we do this earth, we don’t do anything!” and then she said “but we can pray.” And this does relate, old people can do more than we realize, people on the widows list still had stuff to do within church and we shouldn’t disregard old people for not being able to do anything, because all in all, they can pray and that’s more helpful than anything else ultimately. AND like the widows, they got lazy and stuff got in the way of them serving God. What stops you serving God, and what cha going to do about it?